Team Insight Arrives In Vienna!

From today the rehearsals will be beginning, the delegations arriving and Eurovision has begun once more for the craziness of the next two weeks. I’ll be arriving later on Wednesday lunchtime but for now Ewan leads the crew to analyse the stage shows, vocal capacity and more importantly Euro Club gossip for you.

Vienna is shaping up to be fun and well organised on first glance with the Press Centre looking very shiny and sparkly and not a 50 minute bus ride away which always helps matters. You can view the happenings from inside the Press Centre here to make your own mind up.

The Big Plans For The Team

Newsletter output is aiming to be about every two days, following through each rehearsal sequence of the Song Contest as we look at what works and doesn’t. Juke Box Jury will be on board for two more editions (Number six resulted in a dramatic tie-break) as well as the daily podcasts which have started today, which you can sign up to download directly via iTunes.

This week my look at Ukraine’s withdrawal this year featuring Eduard Romanyuta and Zlata Ognevich is ready to read as is Jon Jacob from Thoroughly Good giving an honest look at the information overload that happens in Eurovision week, which we make no apologies over. Wren’s Wien ends by giving you day-by-day breakdowns of what to do for your Eurovision fortnight in Vienna as well.

Furthermore the in-depth podcast comes from Electro Velvet talking demos, cystic fibrosis and how they would feel if they get nul points.

Who To Follow For The Views

The Press Centre will slowly fill up as we pass through each day towards the Grand Final. Look out firstly for OnEurope giving their straight-to-the-point analysis, who I can predict will be sitting next to Eurovision Ireland with friends Garrett, Andrew and Elaine. Elaine’s got her own Eurononsense blog back up and running as well focusing on the behind-the-scenes gossip and fun that Eurovision brings.

Of course ESCKaz and Wiwibloggs have some of the biggest teams so will be some of the fastest to update we would expect if speed is your thing. Rehearsals start a 12:00 for the first four days.

What Else Have I Seen?

It’s been a ding-dong battle for the OGAE votes between Sweden and Italy, but Il Volo have stayed strong to win with a score of 367 points, including 18 twelves and no zeroes. Speaking of dinging and donging we are delighted to see Krista Siegfrids revealing the votes for Finland this year, and she has been this week meeting the lead singer of PKN who interviewed her. It is kind of sweet you know.

Robertson's Reflection

My facebook has filled up even now with the joys of reunions and Austrian Airlines flights as the assembled Press make their way to Vienna. I wasn’t getting that much excited by the prospect, instead glancing at the piles of school marking that I’ve just finished, but it’s the people that make the bubble brilliant and I’m ready to burst in their with my energy and bright trousers.

I’m also seeing the photos on the ground which traditionally show off the glitzy accreditations and the Press Packs. Vienna and its assembled sponsors have gone to town on these this year, with not just your handbooks, notebooks, pens but fans, inflatable cushions and sausages. Simply the Wurst, eh?

In reality it’s amazing considering the cost scrutiny that Eurovision has been under that such demand exists for the expensive reels of Eurovision fluff exist every year. I vaguely remember being told that it costs the EBU figures approaching one thousand Euros to prepare each and every Press Member. It’s humbling for all I feel, whether fan bloggers or big shot, that the press get such a strong attention, and yes you can see where all that money goes. It’s not lingering around this year either, the Press Centre got it’s own official launch yesterday and through the tourist board people can sign up for five free trips including bungee jumping off TV towers, river cruises and a performance in the Golden Hall famous for the New Year’s Day Concerts (we’ve gone for the Spanish riding school on Friday and a wine tasting lunch on Monday).

This effort goes above and beyond the usual by a very long way to making the Press feel special, and by gosh am I not complaining one little bit. I’m always taken aback by even the little benefits we get, from free snacks in the Press Centre to confusing all bus drivers with our accreditation acting as public transport tickets.  What I do question though is if it all makes it value for money? After all, even the gripes we all had about the infrastructure from last year were not really that newsworthy as regardless to our conditions the Song Contest rightly was the thing that took the main focus.

Certainly if there was a need for a budget to be cut one year my personal sadness at not getting a new shoulder bag to show off at the day job would be ok. I wouldn’t insist on my media handbook being all shiny with huge glossy photos of each artist for everyone of us and I certainly would remind the delegations that their fancy CD’s make no difference at all to their odds of winning (but they do make good gifts for children at school). Some people may need a little more, but if there’s plenty of space and super-speed internet most journalists would be able to work wonderfully.

Of course Eurovision is much more than that. Vienna is making much more of an effort to embrace the Song Contest than I ever imagined it would do, reaching out to fans and press to showcase what the city has to their fullest extent. Part of this is image building and city branding, Eurovision provides Vienna with a chance to showcase itself as a location of modern arts, colour and tolerance. You would usually expect Vienna to be a city of the traditional and the classical and this might start to shatter those illusions.

For the EBU of course their work here is about the brand, and again the media are the people who are able to be the first and foremost ambassadors for the brand when it shares with the world. It’s certainly generated a culture already of people getting excited online and sharing their sausage pictures for the world to see. But it’s not an doesn’t need to be an arms race to continuous improvements. We’re just thankful that we only need a short saunter to the venue each morning and for everything to work as it should. It’s not looking particularly possible given the current favourites, but remember Eurovision could turn it’s corner to a nation with many times less income than our recent winners have had. Perhaps we need to just take our press activity and our expectations down a notch, because while Europe lies under the cloud of economic uncertainty we can't expect to be worshipped any more.